Update. I've been lazy lately. Valve springs are on back order till 4/12 so it's kinda slowed me down some. I did get the front suspension all buttoned up.





Engine is almost complete.

 

If you did swap to ls front brakes nows a good time. everything looks great though.

 

Thought about it. But the pads and rotors on the car currently are almost brand new and I never had any trouble stopping with the stock brakes, so I'm gonna get some new hoses and calipers and call it good.

 

Been a semi busy week. Got the underneath of the car clean up and truck bed lined. I went through the engine bay wiring harness and cleaned up the looms and retaped much of it.

Dropped the pan in transmission and wasn't pleased with the fluid. Smells a little burnt.


At least the magnet was doing it's job.


I finished cleaning the trans up and repainted it. I think it turned out nice.



Gonna get a new filter for the trans, refill with Dex VI, add a trans cooler and hope it lasts long enough to get another one.

 

Eek! Was that fluid as brown as it looks in the picture?

 

Pretty much. Never gave any shifting problems though. Kinda bums me since I don't think there's more than 5k miles on the fluid.

 

Oh man, only 5k on the fluid makes it worse. There's some serious slippage going on there.
EDIT: a few questions. Was the old fluid brown like this and smelled burnt too when you changed it 5k miles ago? Was it a pan drop and drain you did, or a complete flush? What type of fluid did you use?

 

To be honest, it's probably less than 5k miles, I'm really taking a guess on that because I don't remember exactly when I did it. I know I've done it twice, once when I first got the car and then once again.

The first time was just a pan drop. The second time I had it flushed out. Both times I put Dex III into it. I don't remember it smelling burnt or being that brown the last time I did it. I'll get a pic with my camera instead of my cell phone, and get a drip or two on some white paper from the valve body. What's in the drain pain is a little inaccurate because I believe there was still some engine oil in it from the last oil change I did, but the color seen coming out of the pan is accurate.

I should add that there were no shavings in the fluid itself. Only what was on the magnet.

 

Your trans sure looks pretty on the outside, but very ugly on the inside!
With that low of miles on new fluid, it should still be a nice red color, and definitely not have a bad smell. Clutch pack slippage causing extreme heat is a reason for burnt fluid.
So would a non working trans cooling system overheat the trans, but the quick build up of metallic sludge on the magnet is saying internal issue.

 

It never shifted weird or unusual. Maybe I caught it early? I'll fill with new fluid and filter and hope for the best. All I can really do I suppose. A new transmission was not on the list of parts to replace. Haha.